Daisy the Vampire Slayer
by Kiana Maria
Summary: The year is 1960. Daisy Turner is a 13-year-old orphan living in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is also the Slayer.
1. A New Life

**Christchurch, New Zealand, 1960 **

**Fear leads to death; courage leads to Heaven. ~ Lucius Aeneas Seneca **

* * *

Daisy Turner sat on a wooden bench on a wooden floor in a plaster hall. Her shirt was white and her skirt was blue, her skin was darker than the other orphans', her socks were white and her runners were leather. She had been summoned to Sister Jeannine's office, but she didn't know why. A picture of Jesus in a silver frame hung on the opposite wall, reflecting an afternoon sunbeam.

The door opened. "Come inside."

She stood and followed the nun into the room.

"Sit down."

She sat in the chair in front of the desk. Sister Jeannine stood before her, and tucked her hands into her habit.

"Do you remember the conversation we had when you came to us three years ago?" The nun spoke in a quiet hush. The window was open, and the shouts and laughter of recess sailed in from the courtyard.

"Do you? I told you that while you had no living relatives in the country, you had an uncle in England. And that one day he might come for you."

She stepped silently across the floorboards to the window and lowered the sash. Silence filled the room.

"Well, he's arrived," Sister said, turning around. "Your uncle, Hugh St. James. He's come to collect you today. He's waiting in the front parlor."

She moved across the floor to her desk, reached down and slid open a drawer. She cupped something into her hand, and slid the drawer closed.

"I have something for you." She stood directly in front of Daisy, so close that the girl could see nothing but rough black cloth.

"You're a very special girl." Her hands went around Daisy's neck and fastened a chain into place. Its medallion dropped into the open space in her collar, and she immediately reached up to feel its shape. It was the shape of a cross.

Sister Jeannine put one cold finger under Daisy's chin, and raised her head until their eyes locked. "You are a very special girl. Never take this off."

* * *

Sister William, an old woman with a cane, opened the door. "Is she ready?"

"Yes," said Sister Jeannine. "Daisy, your belongings have been placed in the front parlor. Your uncle is waiting. Go to him."

Daisy left the office. She walked, one step at a time. No one in her family's last name was St. James. Would he be white like her father had been, or Maori like her mother had been? And just by walking there she was, before the open doors of the front parlor. She stepped inside.

He was very tall, and white. Pale, with dark hair. He wore a suit, and when he spoke he sounded like a pom.

"Hello, dear," he said. "It's time to go."

* * *

Her few possessions slid back and forth in her small satchel as she followed him across the gravel to his car. It looked brand new and very expensive, although she didn't know anything about cars. When they sat down inside, he turned on the engine, and the car glided smoothly across the gravel, through the gates to the street. Daisy didn't look back.

After a bit of time, he spoke. "My wife and son are still in London. They'll fly down when the school term is over. Adrian's just a year younger than you."

Daisy looked out the window. Blocks of tall buildings surrounded them. It was a sunny day, and the sidewalks were full of pedestrians and bicycles and baby prams.

"You know I'm not really your uncle. You know that, right?"

She turned her head to look at him.

"You're a very special girl," he said. He was watching the road.

* * *

When the car finally stopped, it was in the driveway of a house at the bottom of a dead-end street. A tall fence made of whitewashed planks of wood surrounded the section of land. Climbing vines covered the fence and the walls of the house. Trees and ferns grew thick around the edges. White walls and brilliant green grass set off pink and yellow blooms.

Daisy left the car when Hugh St. James did, and after he got her satchel she followed him inside. The large windows let in sunlight and the singing of birds. He sat her satchel down by the door and they walked through an arched doorway into the living room. A few open boxes were close to the fireplace, in a half-unpacked state.

"Big day, right?" he said, sitting down on the sofa. "Come sit down. I've a great deal to tell you."

She crossed the room and sat on the smooth green fabric, leaving the middle cushion empty between them.

"You're a very special girl, Daisy. And the last four days, things have been different, haven't they?"

She clasped her hands together in her lap and looked down at the floor.

"You're stronger than you've ever been. All of your senses - your eyesight, your hearing - are keener. And you've been having dreams that are more vivid than any dreams you've ever had. Dreams about monsters, about killing monsters."

She felt her eyes fill with tears. _How did he know? _

He leaned towards her and cupped the back of her neck in his hand. As the tears rolled down her face, she turned away.

"You're the Slayer," he said. "And I'm your Watcher. I'll teach you everything you need to know."

* * *

He told her that the world was full of monsters - demons living in human corpses. But that there had always been a girl - the Slayer. A girl with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil...to destroy them. When one Slayer died, another was Chosen - it had been that way for thousands of years. And now...that girl was her. Thirteen-year-old orphan Daisy Turner. The Vampire Slayer.

And now Hugh St. James, her Watcher, was on the phone in the kitchen, talking to his wife, who was back home in England. Daisy sat on the sofa, hearing bits of what he said.

"Yes, she's here...I don't know, she hasn't spoken...no, not at all...I don't know...nearly time for supper. I'll wait till tomorrow to begin her training."

When the conversation was over he hung up the phone and leaned into the living room doorway. "Steak and veggies for supper? That sound all right?"

Daisy nodded, looking down at the floor. She could feel him looking at her, as if he had more on his mind, but then he went back to the kitchen. Soon the house was filled with the aroma of dinner on the stove.

* * *

They sat across the kitchen table from each other. Hugh St. James had set the table. His jacket and tie were off, and the top button of his shirt was undone. "I hope it's edible," he said, smiling. "When Quilla gets here, we'll eat better."

Daisy had to pee. But what was she supposed to do? Say, "I need to go to the loo"? "Excuse me, where's the dunny"? He'd never stop laughing and she'd never stop feeling embarrassed. She slowly took bite after bite, chewed and swallowed.

"No one can know you're the Slayer," he said, laying down his fork. "That means nobody. You're to call us Uncle Hugh and Aunt Quilla, and as far as anybody knows, that's who we are. And Adrian is your cousin. Do you understand how important this is?"

She nodded, straining her muscles to fight the urge to run through the house in search of a toilet.

"If it was found out in the demon world who the Slayer is, there's no telling what might happen. Most likely hundreds, thousands of vampires would descend on our house, set it afire and kill us all. That's why the Slayer, traditionally, lives a solitary life. Close friendships are forbidden. If you were to tell just one person, it could spread throughout the world. Are you listening?"

Daisy nodded again, looking down at her plate. She stabbed the undercooked stake with her fork, and blood spread onto white porcelain.

* * *

The sun had set. The sweet scents of flowers and the distant ocean blew in the open windows.

Daisy followed Uncle Hugh upstairs. He opened the first door on the left and switched on the light. The walls were white, the windows bare. He set her satchel down by the foot of the bed. White furniture, pink rug, pink covers.

"If it's not to your liking, a paint job might do the trick."

He stroked her hair a bit. "Get some sleep tonight," he said, and left the room.

Daisy closed the door and found her nightgown in her satchel, along with her other shirt, other socks, and other underwear. She changed clothes and lay down in bed. The cross still hung around her neck and she rubbed her fingertips over its smooth surface. The aching in her abdomen wouldn't cease no matter what position she twisted into.

She heard Uncle Hugh step down the staircase. She waited. She counted to one hundred in her head, but it didn't seem that enough time had passed, so she continued to one thousand. Then she left her bed and opened her door, slowly and silently. One of the doors across the hall was open, and she glimpsed a toilet. She hurried into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Pulling up her nightgown and pulling down her knickers, she sat down on the toilet, and a relief like no other came into her body.


	2. At the Cemetery

A large padlock secured the basement door. "This is the only key," he had said, "and no one else touches it." Now, in the dank, concrete basement, Daisy was surrounded by walls covered with ancient-looking weapons. She knew what bows and arrows were, and found she could recognize a crossbow when she saw one, but there were other things - long wooden pikes and tools with curved steel blades. Bookshelves stood against every wall, and their leather-bound volumes spilled over to stacks on chairs. Exercise mats covered one half of the floor.

"This is where we'll train," he had told her. "But first, I need to tell you how to kill them."

Now she knew. They could be killed by a piece of wood piercing their hearts. Sunlight, or fire. Decapitation or a clean break of the neck. Holy water scalded them, and could be fatal if ingested. Garlic repulsed them, and the crucifix filled them with mortal dread.

When he told her this, Daisy reached up to feel the cross around her neck.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked. "Your parents?"

Shaking her head, she let go of the cross.

* * *

He told her it was a combination of differen martial arts - karate, kung fu, and some other things she had never heard of. Today he wore a T-shirt and jeans, and she could see that his arms were strong and the muscles of his chest well-built. He laid a wooden board across two sawhorses, and chopped it in half with his hand. He taught her that she could do the same.

When Uncle Hugh was dripping with sweat and panting, and Daisy was exhausted with the effort of keeping her skirt from flying up as he taught her how to move, he told her it was time to end for that morning.

"I'll fix us some lunch," he said. "But first, I've got something for you."

A simple wooden stake lay on a shelf. He picked it up and handed it to her. It was about as long as a ruler, and its end had been whittled sharp. "There will be many other stakes," he said. "But this will be your first stake that will kill your first vampire."

She wrapped her hand around it and straightened her arm, picturing a vampire next to her, picturing the piercing of the heart.

"It feels right, doesn't it?" he asked. "It feels like it belongs in your hand."

"Yes," she said. He smiled.

* * *

He told her which books to read, in what order. The first was a Slayer's manual, the second was heavy and simply called _Vampyr, _and there were many others. But he warned her that she must never touch a book without first getting his permission. Some of them contained powerful magics, and she might end up summoning a Tishkoff demon or causing a lunar eclipse if she read the wrong thing.

After lunch one day, she sat on the living room sofa with a heavy volume in her lap. When Uncle Hugh stepped into the doorway, she asked him, "When will I be ready to kill a real vampire?"

"Tonight," he said. "You'll slay your first demon tonight."

* * *

As they left the boundaries of Christchurch the rain fell heavier. Now it battered the car so that the windshield wipers worked so fast it seemed the blades would fly away, and as the sun set the road was hard to see.

Everything in Daisy's body and soul rejected sitting still with her seatbelt on until they reached the cemetery. Uncle Hugh had told her she had nothing to be afraid of, but she had no way of articulating to him that she _wasn't_ afraid - no, she _was_ afraid - but it was good. It was good and exciting. Like the stake she now held in her hand. It was her, the Slayer. Her life.

They had driven through the downpour and come out on the other side. The coastal road they followed showed dark waves of the ocean to their left and high grassy hills to their right. Few cars were on the road.

Soon, Uncle Hugh slowed the car and made a turn. Gravel spat up against the tires. The two headlight beams showed nothing but road ahead.

When he stopped the car and turned off the lights, dark grave markers and trees were all around. "This is it," he said. "They congregate in cemeteries, and this is the most isolated of the cemeteries nearby. I thought it would be the best place to start."

When they left the car, Daisy's eyes adjusted to the darkness. She held her stake and walked beside Uncle Hugh. Then she stopped.

"There are two over there," he whispered. "See them?"

She nodded. Two men in motorcycle jackets leaned against a crypt several meters away. Their voices carried through the air. One of them held a bottle in his hand, from which he took sip after sip.

"Are you sure they're vampires?"

"Look at their faces."

She had to wait until they turned to her direction. Then she saw the unmistakable faces of demons. These weren't illustrations in one of the books; they were real-life monsters. And now she truly was afraid, so afraid that she wanted to run all the way home and climb into bed and never leave the house again.

"Stay here," he told her. "Watch what I do."

She held her stake in both hands as he left her. He moved silently across the grass, and stopped at the side of the crypt. The two vampires kept talking and drinking. Uncle Hugh was inches away from them, his back to concrete. Then he moved forward and his stake was in a creature's back. There was an ungodly scream and the body burst into dust that flew up into the air before settling on the ground.

The other one dropped his bottle of liquor and opened his mouth to reveal his fangs. Uncle Hugh moved to stake him, but the vampire grabbed his arm and threw him back against the crypt. Daisy stepped forward, then stopped. The vampire's teeth glinted in the moonlight. He leaped, his arms out and his long, sharp nails ready to grab onto her Watcher's flesh. Then Uncle Hugh held out his stake and the vampire leaped into it, disintegrating himself with his own volition.

Uncle Hugh walked back to her, breathing hard. "Think you can do that?" he asked.

Daisy nodded.

"Good," he said. "Let's find some more."

They walked through the graveyard side-by-side. It wasn't long before they saw, in the distance, a woman walking towards them.

"Okay, that one's alone," Uncle Hugh said. "Looks like an easy kill, too. I'll be right here. Remember what I taught you."

Daisy's hands were sweating. She held her stake as securely as she could, her fingers aching. She walked swiftly forward. When the vampire saw her, it stopped and stood still. Daisy went no further, unwittingly imitating the woman's action. They looked at each other. And the vampire ran forward, faster than any human could. Terrible moans came from deep in her unmoving lungs as she leaped on Daisy, knocking the Slayer to the ground. She smelled wretched, like mildew and filth. Her damp hair and damp clothes were all over Daisy's body, and her sharp nails dug through her shirt. Daisy turned and thrust her stake, missing the vampire and stabbing the ground. As the woman's fangs scraped at her arm in search of her neck, she pulled the stake from the soil, got to her knees, and collapsed on top of her, plunging the wood into her heart. The vampire exploded into dust.

"That's how it's going to be," Uncle Hugh said, walking forward. "Every night. Just like that."

Daisy stood, holding her stake, and straightened her skirt. She felt exhilirated, but nowhere near finished. She had killed a vampire. It was something she could do, and wanted to do, again and again, for the rest of her life. She was Daisy, and she was the Slayer.


	3. Family

He woke her up early the next morning. She stretched her body this way and that, the covers twisting around her, until every muscle was alert. Uncle Hugh sat on the edge of the bed. "Come on," he said. "If we're late, Quilla will be furious."

* * *

A few blocks from the airport, Daisy looked through the windshield and over the cars ahead of them to the sky. A plane was diving in to land. Memories of screams and smoke and fire, then the horrible absence of anyone's screams but her own, filled her head. She looked at Uncle Hugh. She didn't know if he knew what had happened to her parents. The light changed and he drove forward.

He parked at the airport and they walked inside. It was large and bright and crowded. He led her through the terminal to a waiting area and they sat down next to each other. "Should've landed already," he said.

Finally, a crowd emerged from the arrival gates. Uncle Hugh stood and Daisy copied. A woman and a boy walked to them.

"Hello, darling," Uncle Hugh said, as he and Aunt Quilla grapsed each other's arms and kissed on the cheeks. Then he leaned over and hugged Adrian, who looked like his father's shorter twin. "This is she," said Uncle Hugh, laying a hand on Daisy's shoulder.

"Hello," said Adrian, and his mother asked, "How are you getting on?"

Daisy only looked at her, because she didn't know what to say.

* * *

When Uncle Hugh complained about the weight of their suitcases, Adrian asked, "Couldn't Daisy carry it all?"

"Quiet, you wally."

The four of them walked outside to the car park. As Uncle Hugh piled their luggage into the boot, Daisy and Adrian sat down in the backseat while Aunt Quilla sat in the front.

"Have you slain a vampire yet?" Adrian asked, as soon as the car doors were closed.

She nodded absently and looked at Aunt Quilla. She looked about ten years older than her husband. Her hair was blond and cut short. Her arm was stretched out on the back of the seat, and Daisy could see that her nails were short and her hand was masculine, like a nun's.

"Did you inhale any of the dust?" Adrian asked as his father sat down and started the motor. "Because they say that if you breathe it in, it can slowly erode the tissue in your lungs. And that's how a lot of Slayers die, because it builds up over the years - "

"Adrian, please," Aunt Quilla said. Then, turning to Daisy, "Are those the only clothes you have, dear? We'll have to take you shopping, won't we? Didn't you think of it, Hugh?"

"I've had a bit more on my mind than clothes, Quill."

* * *

At home, Aunt Quilla and Adrian roamed the house. Adrian's room was to be across the hall from Daisy's, and they would share the upstairs bath. The other bedroom was on the first floor. Aunt Quilla called the house and grounds "garish," and Uncle Hugh said, "It was the most private one I could find."

"Where's all the Slayer stuff?" Adrian asked.

"In the basement," he was told. "And you're not to go poking around."

"Do you want to go outside and practice?" he asked. "I'll be the vampire."

Daisy shook her head.

"Why don't you ever say anything?"

Daisy looked at the rug.

"Well, why don't you?"

"Leave her alone," said Uncle Hugh.

* * *

That night, she toured the cemeteries with her Watcher. Each kill came easier, and filled her with more desire to stake them again and again. She never wanted the sun to rise, but when it did, she rode home next to him in the car, happy and impatient for the next night to come.

Aunt Quilla took her shopping. She bought her a pair of Chuck Taylors, pajamas, lots of underwear and socks, T-shirts, and jeans (or "dungarees," as Aunt Quilla called them). The clothes she had brought with her from the orphanage were now hung in her closet, never to come out again. Her freedom of movement was so superior to what it had been that her new favorite thing to do was to kick a vampire right in its fangy mouth.

On her fourteenth birthday, Uncle Hugh decided on a trip to the beach. They spent the day in the sunshine, eating sandwiches and then swimming. While Uncle Hugh and Aunt Quilla lay on a blanket, Daisy and Adrian ran back and forth in a wet, cool space of sand, allowing the surf to knock them off their feet. By the end of the day, Daisy found herself replying when someone said something, and even shouting with joy. When she left the water and put her clothes back on over her swimsuit, her wet hair tangled around her neck and she could still feel the ocean throwing her up and down.

As they rode home, the sun set. "May as well drop you off, Dais," said Uncle Hugh. "There's a stake in the glove box."

"Is she ready to go out by herself?" Aunt Quilla asked.

"She'll be all right." He drove to a cemetery, Ruru Lawn, and instructed her to also do Memorial Park and Linwood, and then walk home.

* * *

Daisy was outside in the back garden with her crossbow, while Adrian lay on the ground reading an old Watcher's diary and Aunt Quilla left for the market. She shot a bolt into the target on the back fence, reloaded and shot again, splitting the first bolt Robin Hood-style.

"Can I try?" Adrian asked.

"No. It's mine."

"Just let me see it for a minute," he said, standing up.

"I have to practice."

"Well, if I'm going to be a Watcher one day, I have to practice too."

"Who says you're going to be a Watcher?"

"That's how it goes. It's passed down from father to son. But there'll be a different Slayer by then."

"Why would there be a different Slayer?"

"Oh, you know. Can I see it?"

She handed him the crossbow. Just then, Uncle Hugh looked out the back door. "Don't point that at the house," he said. "Don't point it anywhere but the target."

"All right," Adrian said, turning around.

He fired the bolt and it hit the fence, two meters away from the target. Reloading, he turned around to say, "The Slayer before you - " when the crossbow fired in his hand. The bolt crashed through a kitchen window.

"Bloody hell."

They both raced inside to see the damage. The kitchen floor was covered with shards of broken glass, and a pitcher of lemonade had been knocked off the counter. It lay broken on the floor. Lemon slices and sticky water were everywhere.

Uncle Hugh ran in. "What the devil happened?" Then, seeing Adrian with the crossbow, "What did I tell you?"

"It was an accident!"

"You could've killed someone." He took the crossbow from him and laid it on the table.

"But I didn't mean - "

Uncle Hugh opened a drawer and took out a wooden spoon. Grabbing Adrian's arm, he hit him, once, on the seat of his trousers, breaking the spoon in two. He dropped the handle to the floor. "Clean this mess up," he said, and left the room.

Daisy went out the back door. She walked across the grass, around the house and down the driveway to the front porch. She sat down on the top step and leaned against the rail. The street was just visible through the open gate. A fantail was on the ground, pecking about for insects. It looked at her, then flew away. Daisy held her head in her hands and closed her eyes. Tears rolled down her face, then she sobbed until her entire body shook.


	4. An Isolated Life

It was a dark night, the night of the new moon. She heard the scream and ran across the grass, dodging tombstones, to the other side of Linwood Cemetery. Near the fence, a vampire held a woman in his arms, his teeth in her neck. In the throws of his ecstasy, he dropped to his knees.

Daisy took a vial of holy water from her pocket, screwed off the lid and shook it towards the vampire's face. His teeth came out of the flesh and he screamed as his skin sizzled. He rose to his feet and backed away from the Slayer. The woman's lifeless body lay forgotten on the ground.

Daisy's stake was in her hand. The vampire leaped toward her, and she raised the shaft of wood to where his heart should be when he landed. But then something was wrong. She hadn't predicted his movements correctly. He was at her side, and she had time to move her arm upwards towards his teeth to prevent him from latching on to her throat. His teeth were embedded in her forearm. Daisy gasped in agony, then thrust her stake into his chest. The dust that had been a vampire covered the ground.

She dropped her stake and was breathing hard. Blood poured out of her arm. She stumbled to the fence. Pulling herself up the iron bars, she made it to the top. She vaulted over and landed on the ground. She put her hand over her wound, and the thick liquid ran between her fingers. She began to jog towards the house.

There were no cars in sight, so she ran down the middle of the street. Two blocks from home, something moved in the shadows. A vampire stepped out from a group of trees and stood in front of her, sniffing the air.

She had left her stake at the cemetery. Her left arm was numb and she felt dizzy and strange. The vampire looked directly at her. He smiled, showing all of his jagged fangs. Then he was on top of her and she was battling for her life. Her back hit the pavement in the middle of the street. The velocity of a kick propelled him away from her, and she had the time to jump to her feet before he attacked again. She punched him in his throat, and ran out of the street, onto the footpath. He ran after her, and she grabbed him and threw him onto someone's white picket fence. The wood pierced his heart, and he disappeared.

Daisy stumbled home, breathing hard. The gate was open. She climbed the porch steps and opened the front door. She walked down the hall to the kitchen, where Uncle Hugh was at the window. He turned and saw her, and set the new pane of glass he was holding on the table. In the light, Daisy could see that her arms and clothes were soaking with blood.

"One of them bit me."

She held up the gash in her arm. Uncle Hugh moved towards her, lifting her arm to see.

"He got you, didn't he? Go up to the bath. I'll be there in a second."

She climbed the stairs, holding onto the rail. Adrian's door was closed; he and Aunt Quilla must have gone to bed hours earlier. Daisy pushed open the bathroom door and switched on the light. She sat down on the edge of the tub. Uncle Hugh jogged up the stairs and came in with bandages in his hand. She held out her arm while he cleaned the wound and wrapped white gauze around it. "You should stay in for the rest of the night. You've lost a lot of blood."

He took a wet towel out of the hamper and began cleaning the blood that had dripped to the floor. Daisy went to her room. She locked the door and took off her clothes, leaving them in a heap in the corner. Her knickers felt wet, so she pulled them down to see. Dark spots of blood stained the cotton fabric. She felt weak and nauseous. Her hands shook as she pulled up her underwear and put on her pajamas. She opened the door and sat down on the bed.

Water was turned on and off in the bathroom, and then Uncle Hugh came and stood in the doorway. "Did you dust him?" he asked.

Daisy nodded her head. "But...I think he damaged my organs or something."

"Are you in pain?"

"No, but...I'm bleeding..."

He was leaning on his elbow in the doorframe and pushing his fingers through his hair.

"There's blood all over my knickers."

His hand paused on top of his head, and he looked at her. "Hasn't anyone ever told you about that?"

She only looked down at her lap and felt her eyes fill with tears.

"Look," he said, "you're all right. Quilla will come up to help you."

He left the doorway, and Daisy wiped the tears from her face. A few minutes later, she heard Aunt Quilla's footsteps on the stairs. Raindrops tapped the window, and thunder rumbled in the sky.

* * *

Adrian put a record on the living room turntable and adjusted the needle. "Listen to this," he said. He switched the speed and he and Daisy laughed as they listened to Elvis sing "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" as high and fast as a Chipmunk. Adrian switched it back to normal speed and adjusted the volume. Daisy changed the speed again, then changed it again, back and forth, giggling.

"You're going to mess it up," Adrian said.

"No, I'm not."

"Stop." He grabbed her hand. She pulled it away and it hit the needle, making a long scratch mark across the vinyl.

"Look what you did!" He took the record off the player as Uncle Hugh walked into the room and sat down.

"Look what Daisy did."

"Oh well, it was just an accident."

"But now it won't play."

"You have other records to listen to," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"But - "

"Stop whinging about it. You're being a Nancy boy."

Aunt Quilla walked into the room and said, "We'll have to go pick up your school uniform tomorrow, Adrian."

"Won't I have to get one too?" asked Daisy.

Aunt Quilla looked at Uncle Hugh and he looked at Daisy. "You won't be going," he said. "Aunt Quilla can teach you at home. She was a schoolteacher before we married."

"But - " She pictured the days and months and years ahead, a long line of words and numbers.

"It wouldn't be secure," he said. "We've talked about this before, haven't we? The Slayer lives as isolated a life as possible."

"But it's not fair..." The days and nights wouldn't be divided by school and sleep. There would be no soda shops on the weekends, only cemeteries every night. There would be no girlfriends, no dates, no dancing, no boyfriends. There would only be Uncle Hugh and Aunt Quilla and Adrian and vampires. She was out of the orphanage and now lived in a real home, but it was no worse and no better. And it was for the rest of her life.

Aunt Quilla had gone back to the kitchen. If only her parents hadn't died, Daisy thought. If only the plane had landed on the runway, and they had simply gathered their luggage and gone on their vacation. If only their bodies were here, above the ground, animated, talking. If only her father was coming home from work in the house they had lived in, and her mother was telling her to put away her dolls and set the table for dinner.

She got to her feet. She stepped through the doorway into Hugh and Quilla's bedroom, the closest place to be by herself. She wrapped her arms around herself but felt no comfort. Her body shook with sobs before the tears came. Then she cried and then Uncle Hugh was in the room. "It's all right," he said. He put his arms around her and she laid her head against his chest. He stroked the back of her hair.

"It's all right. You have a family now, don't you? And being the Slayer is more important than anything most people will ever do in their lives."

Daisy opened her eyes. Adrian stood just outside the doorway, looking at her and his father. Uncle Hugh reached over and blocked his son's face with the door.


	5. Three Years Later

**Christchurch, New Zealand, 1963**

* * *

It was the last day of Adrian's school term, and one of his friends, Christian Forster, had walked home with him. Daisy sat in the front garden and listened to the two boys talk about cricket and rugby and some girl named Charlotte and lots of other people she didn't know.

Christian looked at his watch. "Better get going," he said.

"Do you want to go round Allie's house tomorrow?" Adrian asked. "We could swim."

"Maybe."

Adrian climbed the porch steps and went inside. Daisy stood and leaned against the gatepost. Christian started to leave, then he stopped and said, "Why don't you come to Allie's with us tomorrow?"

"Oh, I..." Uncle Hugh had often told her she couldn't socialize but had never told her what excuse to give.

"I don't know if I can..."

"Well, ask."

Just then, Uncle Hugh opened the screen door and called, "It's time to come in, Dais."

Daisy looked in the direction of the house, then back at Christian.

"God, your uncle's a fascist," he said.

"Yes, he's a Nazi."

"Well, see if you can come tomorrow."

"All right," she said, knowing there was no point in asking, and that she would spend the entire next day in the basement to avoid seeing Christian and having to explain.

He left, and she walked to the porch. Uncle Hugh held open the door for her as she went inside.

"What are you talking to that git for?"

"Am I not allowed to have conversations with other human beings?"

"It's time for supper."

* * *

After she ate, Daisy went down to the basement with Uncle Hugh to warm up for the night. She trained for an hour, doing the same routine she'd been doing lately, that he had designed a few weeks ago. When she finished, her body didn't want to stop moving, and she wished the cemeteries weren't an entire car ride away. She loaded her pockets and sleeves with freshly carved stakes, and they went upstairs. He locked the basement door behind them.

Adrian came down the stairs with his clothes freshly changed and his hair freshly combed. "Are you taking Daisy now?" he asked. "Can you drop me off at the cinema?"

"What, are you meeting somebody?" Uncle Hugh asked.

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Charlotte Baines."

"Who's she?"

"She's a gir-ul."

Daisy went out to the car. When Hugh and Adrian came out she got into the front seat. Adrian sat in the back and Uncle Hugh sat down in the driver's seat and started the motor.

* * *

The sun lowered in the sky, creating a brilliant artwork of orange and purple. The car traveled through winding streets, out of the outskirts into the city.

"What picture are you seeing?" Daisy asked, without turning around.

"That Alfred Hitchcock picture, _The Birds._"

"Shouldn't be allowed to make that rubbish," Uncle Hugh muttered.

Adrian lowered his voice to a comical imitation. "If those sodding twits had any idea what battling the supernatural actually entails..."

Daisy looked nervously at Uncle Hugh, but he was smiling.

The car stopped parallel to the concrete path in front of the cinema. It was the exact definition of "evening," Daisy thought. Bright lights had been turned on at the top of the lampposts, but the sky hadn't yet turned black. Dozens of people, most of them about her age, crossed back and forth in front of the car. Adrian got out and his door slammed behind him. One girl in front of the entryway walked towards him, posing with her arms outstretched and her face in a toothy smile. Daisy noticed her poorboy top and corduroy skirt and patterned tights and heeled Mary Janes. She wished she had those clothes, but they wouldn't be practical at the cemetery and she very rarely went to the cinema or anywhere else. The girl wrapped her arms around Adrian. Daisy looked away as Uncle Hugh drove down the street.

It was dark when they reached Barbados Street Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Christchurch and one of Daisy's favorites, because most of the headstones stood vertically instead of lying flat on the ground. Uncle Hugh stopped the car. "Off you go."

She opened the door and took off her seatbelt, but didn't leave the car. "Do you think it's going to rain?"

"Maybe some sprinkles. We won't have a storm."

She put one leg out of the car and tried to think of something else to say. "Are you just going home?"

He nodded. "I'll be awake when you get there. Go on. You'll be all right."

_But can't you come with me? _she wanted to ask. Instead she left the car and closed the door. Uncle Hugh drove away. She pulled a stake from her pocket and walked among the graves, looking for demons to kill.

* * *

A few days later, she walked around the side of the house with a stake in her hand and dropped it immediately when she saw Christian come in the front gate.

"Is Adrian around?" he asked.

"No, he's gone out somewhere."

"Oh," he said. "What's that thing you were holding?"

"Oh, I was just..." She looked at the stake, lying on the ground. "I was just gardening."

"Oh. Planting flowers?"

"Yes."

He sat down on the porch steps. "Why don't you come to school, by the way?"

"Well, my aunt teaches me..." She leaned against a tree.

"Oh. You never seem to go out anywhere."

"No, my uncle won't let me."

"Not ever? Why not?"

"Because...I don't know. He's crazy."

Christian got up and walked across the grass. He stood next to her, then sat down on the ground, leaning back against the tree.

"Sit down," he said.

She sat.

"You must be the loneliest girl in the world."

He had whispered it, and now his arm was around her. She could feel his warmth through his shirt, and noticed the dark hairs on the back of his neck. Their four bent knees knocked together.

Before she could be surprised, he leaned forward and kissed her on her face, near her mouth. She turned her head slightly, and their lips came together. He kissed her gently, holding her head in his hand, his fingers stuck into her hair.

"No, don't," she said, pulling away.

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know."

She leaned back against the tree, breathing hard.

"You're shaking all over."

They looked into each other's faces as Daisy caught her breath.

"What's wrong? What are you so afraid of?"

"I don't know."

He leaned around her again, and his fingers went back into her hair. "It's all right," he whispered, before he kissed her again, pushing his tongue into her mouth. Then he was away from her, there was a shout, and Uncle Hugh stood over them, dragging Christian by the arm.

Daisy got to her feet.

"If I ever see you again, I'll beat your ass." Uncle Hugh threw Christian out the gate, and he landed on his hands and knees in the middle of the street.

"What are you doing! Why did you do that!" she shouted, as he closed and locked the gate.

"Get inside the house."

Daisy ran up the porch steps and through the front door. Uncle Hugh was right behind her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he shouted.

"It's none of your business!"

She started upstairs and he grabbed her arm. "You're the only thing to prevent every person in the world from being turned into demons, and I'm in charge of you. Everything you do is my bloody business!"

She pulled her arm free, and he stumbled back against the wall. He looked at her with such anger that she felt herself shudder inside. "Get upstairs," she said quietly.

Daisy ran up the stairs.

* * *

She lay in bed. Her door was closed and her window was open. A cool breeze blew into the room.

She heard Adrian come home, then heard him jog up the stairs. He opened the door and when he stood near her bed, he seemed to nearly be laughing.

"Were you getting off with Christian?"

She sat up. "No! We weren't...we weren't doing _anything._"

"My dad said you were. He said if he ever comes round the house again he's going to -"

"Beat his arse, I know."

"He would, too." Adrian sat down next to her.

"I'm sure he would."

She lay back and looked up at the ceiling. "Why doesn't he act that way with you?"

"What way?"

"Overprotective-like."

"I'm not the Slayer. Also, you're a girl."

Next to each other on the bed, Daisy lay and Adrian sat, thinking, not talking.

"Have you ever done that?"

"Done what?" he asked.

"Snogging."

"Oh, sure."

"Ever been shagged?"

"Well," he said, "you know Emily White? We didn't really do it, but we came close."

"What would your dad do if he found out?"

"Don't know. Beat my arse."

"Do you think you'll be like that with your Slayer?"

"No," he said, thinking about it. "I'll let her do whatever she wants, as long as she does her job every night."

After more silence, Adrian spoke. "He likes you more than he does me. True, that."

"And you think so because...?"

"Well, he treats you better, doesn't he? It's like you have this Slayer/Watcher relationship that's just betwixt the two of you."

"Don't you have a father/son relationship betwixt you?"

"No, it's not the same. I'm not unhappy about it, mind. You haven't got anyone else, except me and my mum."

"But your mum doesn't like me more."

"No."

"So you're just a bit closer to your mum than your dad. What's the big deal?"

"I didn't say it was a big deal... But, you know, in his mind, the worse he treats me, the better Watcher I'll make."

"But he's not mad at you _all _the time. He can be affectionate."

"Every few months."

"So just think about those poor children in China whose fathers _never _hug them."

Adrian laughed. "Or those poor children in England."

They stayed on the bed until Quilla called them down for dinner.


	6. Holiday

"I spoke to someone from the Council today," said Uncle Hugh, as Aunt Quilla spooned egg and chips onto his plate. "They've given us leave to go on holiday. I thought we might like to go back and visit London."

"For how long?" asked Aunt Quilla.

"Don't know. Two weeks, I should think."

"Will we stay at Grandma's house?" asked Adrian.

"You can show Daisy around the city. Of course, you'll have to get some slaying in while we're there," he said, looking at Daisy.

She slowly moved a chip back and forth on her plate.

"Aren't there more vamps in big cities?" asked Adrian.

"Yes, that's so."

"Is it 'cause there's more people to eat?"

"I suppose."

"Your grandma won't believe how tall you've grown," said Quilla to her son. "You're nearly as tall as your dad. Stand back-to-back so I can see you."

"Can't it wait till after we eat, for God's sake?" asked Uncle Hugh.

* * *

Clothes were laid on chairs and stacked on the bed near her open suitcase as Daisy decided what she would need for the trip. They were to be gone two weeks, and she had T-shirts and jeans enough to only have to do the wash once. She didn't own a dress, and she only had one skirt, which was getting too small. Maybe Aunt Quilla would take her shopping once they got there.

"Daisy!" Uncle Hugh called up the stairs. "We'll miss the plane!"

She shoved everything that could fit into her suitcase and carried it down the stairs.

Aunt Quilla and Adrian waited in the driveway. Uncle Hugh locked the front door and they all got into the car.

When they drove toward the airport, Daisy remembered the street. She hadn't ridden down it since the day, three years ago, that Adrian and Quilla had arrived from London. Her hands twisted the fabric of her jeans, and left sweat stains. She grasped the door handle, and ran her hands over it, then messed with the window latch.

"You did pack your blue jacket?" asked Aunt Quilla from the front.

Adrian nodded.

* * *

At the airport, they walked inside, carrying their luggage. In the middle of the crowds and noise, Daisy lagged behind the three of them, who walked in a row together. The two-storey walls were all windows, and outside she saw a plane landing, then another one taking off. She followed through the security check, and they all went to wait in the departure lounge.

Uncle Hugh sat down and looked at his watch. "Time for the bookstore, if anyone wants."

Adrian and Quilla set their luggage down and left, and Daisy sat next to Uncle Hugh. She looked out the windows, then as far as she could into the departure gates. People walked back and forth in front of her, carrying suitcases.

"What's the matter?"

Startled out of her thoughts, she looked at Uncle Hugh. She hadn't noticed, but her spine was in a tall, straight line, her eyes were alert, and her hands twisted around the fabric of her shirt.

"Nothing," she said, slouching down in her chair.

Adrian and Quilla returned, with books and a stack of magazines. They sat on the other side of Uncle Hugh, and he turned from Daisy to talk to them. Before she could stop them, tears rolled down Daisy's face and dropped off her chin. She wiped her face with her hands. No one had noticed. She thought she would be all right, but then she found herself gasping for air, tears came again, and not only Hugh, Quilla and Adrian but a few other people were looking at her.

"What's wrong, dear?" asked Aunt Quilla.

She tried to say "Nothing," but she couldn't talk. She put her head down in her hands and sobbed. Uncle Hugh's long arm was across her back, and his hand patted her shoulder.

She waited until she could stop crying. Then she sat up straight, dug a Kleenex out of her purse and wiped her nose.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded.

"What's wrong?"

"I just can't help thinking about –"

"It's time to board."

Daisy stood and picked up her suitcase. Hugh, Quilla and Adrian were gathering their things. Uncle Hugh had their boarding passes, and she followed behind him.

Just before she reached the entry, Daisy dropped her suitcase. The latch broke open and clothes spilled everywhere. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said, as people stepped out of her way. She knelt down to pick up everything, and Adrian knelt down to help.

"Come on, hurry," said Uncle Hugh.

Daisy started to click the latch, then dropped the suitcase and fell from her knees to the floor. Adrian stood up and looked at her. She cried, holding her face in her hands, her hair falling down in front of her eyes.

Aunt Quilla walked over to her. "Come on, dear," she whispered.

"No, I can't, I can't."

"You'll be all right once we're on the plane." She grasped Daisy's arm and tried to pull her to her feet, but failed.

"I can't."

Uncle Hugh walked to them, kneeled down and latched the suitcase. "Come on," he said, standing up and holding out his hand.

Daisy took it and he pulled her to her feet.

"I can't do it," she said, leaning into his chest. "I can't. I can't. Don't make me."

She sobbed. She felt Hugh and Quilla look at one another.

"I suppose I could get a refund," he said.

Then, Adrian's voice: "We're not just not going!"

Hugh picked up the suitcase, and Quilla gathered the rest of their things.

"Well, let's go before the traffic gets any worse."

He and Quilla walked away from the departure gates, back towards the parking lot.

Daisy followed behind them, but Adrian didn't move.

"We're just not going to _go?_" he shouted, so that if anyone in the airport wasn't looking at them yet, they were then.

Uncle Hugh and Aunt Quilla walked swiftly through the terminal, and Daisy followed close behind. Not until they were out the doors and in the parking lot did Adrian catch up to them, muttering that he couldn't believe they were really doing this.

They packed all their luggage back into the car, and drove home in silence.


	7. Just Thinking

She pulled the stake from the vampire's chest and watched the dust fall to the ground. It would probably be the last slay of the night. She walked across someone's grave and between two tombstones. A stone crypt, as big as a single-room, one-storey house would be, was a few meters away. She walked to it, climbed an angel statue, and hoisted herself up to the roof.

She lay down on her side and felt the cool stone touch her cheek. Hugh and Quilla had been no less cheerful than they ever were, but Adrian hadn't spoken to her since their failed holiday. When he was home, he was in his room with the door closed. If Daisy peeked in, he was lying in bed, listening to music, and refusing to look in her direction.

The sun was rising. Daisy thought the time when it was night turning to the time when it was day had to come down to one second. There had to be an exact moment. She waited for it. The sky was lighter, but still dark. She waited, trying not to think. It was always so impossible not to think. You even had to _think _that you were trying not to think. And then, there it was. The moment. It had been dark, and now it was light. Night became day. The vampire threat was gone. Birds came alive, coasting from trees to the ground, and singing their daily hymns to the sun.

She turned over onto her back, breathing slowly. She went through her life in her mind. She thought about each place she had lived, and all the people she had known. She rolled onto her stomach and looked at the field of tombstones.

How long had she been lying there? She didn't have a watch. It might have been minutes, or hours. She sat up, then jumped to the ground. She walked home.

When she walked into the gates Uncle Hugh was starting the car. When he saw her he turned off the motor.

"Are you all right?" he asked, getting out of the car.

She nodded, walking to the house.

"Where've you been? I was about to go out to find you."

"I was at the cemetery."

"You're late coming home."

Climbing the porch steps, Daisy told him, "I was just thinking."

"Well, don't let it happen again," he said, following her inside. "You can think in the house."

* * *

It was late in the afternoon, but so dark and cloudy that all the lights in the house were on, giving the kitchen an eerie effect. Quilla washed dishes and Daisy dried them, and Hugh sat at the table going through the mail. The phone cord was a taught line stretching around the doorway and across the hall, and Adrian's voice could be heard from the dining room. Just then, wind crashed into the house, and the room became totally dark.

"Bugger it," said Uncle Hugh.

Quilla turned off the water and Adrian came in to hang up the phone. Daisy found the counter with her hand and laid down the dish she was holding.

"Is the fuse blown?" asked Adrian's voice.

"No, it's the wind," said Uncle Hugh. "We'll just have to wait for them to fix it."

Cabinet doors opened and closed as Quilla searched in the dark. A match was lit, then two candles. The glow of the small flames created shadows all over the room.

"We learned to do without electricity in the War," said Aunt Quilla. "It wasn't so bad. The worst bit was doing without coal."

"The worst bit was bodies getting blown to pieces," said Uncle Hugh, leaning back and rubbing his eyes.

"Didn't you know a bloke in Belgium who froze into the snow?" asked Adrian, from the doorway.

Uncle Hugh nodded his head. "We had to break the ice with the butts of our rifles and pull him out."

"Did he die?"

"No, he lived. But the surgeon chopped off his legs."

"Well, who's worse?" asked Quilla. "The Nazis or vampires?"

"The girls are so young," he said. "That makes it worse."

"The lads were young, too."

"At least they had their childhoods."

Daisy found herself inching along the hall to the doorway. They always talked about the other Slayers, who were all dead, so casually. They always talked about the Slayer Adrian might have, in the future, after he'd graduated from secondary school, then University, then the Watchers Academy. And she found herself mentioning it too, without screaming or crying. She had read many of the Watchers' diaries, and someday some girl, somewhere, would read Hugh's diary, and learn about Daisy Turner, who had lived and slain and died. The hallway was totally dark. She crossed the floor to the dining room, where some light shone in the windows. She passed through the archway to the living room, and then to the bedroom. Uncle Hugh kept the basement keys in the closet. She had seen him open the door to retrieve them often enough but wasn't sure exactly where they were. When she pulled open the closet door, it made a slight noise and she quickly looked behind her. No sound came from the kitchen, so she opened the door further. She reached up to the shelf and felt around, but found nothing. She dug into his coat pockets, and her fingers knocked against something hard and cold. She pulled the key ring out and stuck it in her pocket. She wandered back to the kitchen.


	8. Don't Let Me Die

Aunt Quilla wasn't home; nor was Adrian. It was mid-morning and Daisy was wide awake, though Uncle Hugh was asleep. He always stayed up until she arrived home just after dawn, and they slept in the morning. But she didn't need as much sleep as other people, so she had a couple of hours to herself.

She unlocked the basement door with shaking hands. She removed the padlock and turned the doorknob, stepped onto the first stair and left the door hanging open. If he came into the kitchen, he would notice that the lock was gone as soon as he would notice the door was open. Daisy wore socks, and she placed each foot lightly down the steps, silently descending.

There was another lock to open. He kept the journal in a cabinet. There were books that contained spells that did God-knows-what just lying around, but his journals were in a locked cabinet. Daisy stuck the other key on the ring into the padlock, turned it, unhooked the lock and pulled open the door.

On the shelf were several matched, slim volumes, bound in leather. She felt suddenly nervous, then sick, then as if she was descending into a dark hole from which she would never emerge. The purpose of these journals was that she would die, and others would learn about slaying from her life. She picked up one of them. Her hand was real and alive, and it was holding a book. But someday it would be buried under the ground, and someday it would be nothing but dust. And some other girl would hold this book and read it, and it would be her hand that was alive. And she would picture Daisy, and Hugh and Quilla and Adrian, and their house, but the image in her mind wouldn't really look like it had really been. And then that girl would die, and the next, and the next. And would it ever stop? Would the world ever come to an end, or millions of years from now would there be a race of super-evolved humans inhabiting the earth? And what if there wasn't any afterlife? Uncle Hugh had shown her that the Garden of Eden story was a myth, so what if Heaven didn't exist, either? Daisy opened the journal and began to read.

* * *

It was so strange, reading it all from his perspective. The first entry was from the day he had met her at the orphanage. She found out that one reason he had been assigned as her Watcher and not someone else was that he had a wife and son, and the Council had decided that Daisy Turner's Watcher should adopt her and raise her as his own. A Vampire Slayer living in a secluded, restrictive orphanage would have difficulty getting out to the cemeteries every night. His words were so formal and unemotional, as reserved as his perfect handwriting. He never called her by her name in the journal. He called her "The Slayer." He wrote that she had trained. She had killed vampires. But he didn't write that she was afraid. He didn't write that she was lonely. She heard the car in the driveway. Slapping the journal closed, she laid it back on the shelf, closed the cabinet door and replaced the lock. She hurried up the stairs to the kitchen. She closed the basement door and stuck the padlock into place, clicking it together just as Quilla came in the front door.

* * *

Daisy and Adrian lay about on the living room sofa, watching some British sitcom, laughing at the dramatic parts and staying silent during the jokes. Aunt Quilla was in the kitchen. Uncle Hugh was still asleep, and Daisy waited for him to wake up and leave the bedroom so she could replace the basement keys.

She heard him moving about, then he emerged from the room and stood sleepily in the doorway, leaning against the wall. He rubbed his mouth with one hand, then left the living room, crossing the floor between the sofa and the telly.

Daisy stood and inched her way towards the doorway. She heard him coming back and plopped back down on the sofa. "It's about time for training, Dais," he said, walking in front of the telly again. Then he was in the bedroom, and the keys were still in Daisy's pocket.

She heard him open the closet door. It was open for a moment, then it closed. Uncle Hugh came back into the room.

"Turn this stupid thing off," he said, turning off the telly and standing over her and Adrian. "The basement keys aren't where I left them. Now where are they?"

Adrian began to say, "I don't know," as Uncle Hugh's eyes moved back and forth from him to Daisy. Daisy looked at Uncle Hugh, then dug into her pocket and pulled out the key ring. He held out his hand, and she gave it to him.

"What were you doing down there by yourself?"

"Reading."

"Reading what?"

"Your journal."

There was a small, astonished, and amused sound from Adrian. Uncle Hugh's eyes looked straight at her, and his breathing was loud with anger.

"Anything you want to know, you can ask me. And if you can't know it, there's a reason you can't."

He kept looking at her for a moment. Then he turned to leave the room.

Adrian leaped up, catching up with his father in the doorway. "Why does Daisy do whatever she wants?" He had almost shouted it, and it seemed like he was almost hysterical. "If I'd done that you'd start looking around for something to hit me with."

"It's time for training," Uncle Hugh said, walking past his son. Daisy stood up to follow him down to the basement. Then Adrian shouted, "Why don't you tell her off?"

Uncle Hugh turned around and slapped Adrian across the face. The noise was so loud it carried across the room. Adrian fell back against the wall, and tears ran out of his eyes. His cheek was bright red.

"You have no idea what that girl's going through," Hugh muttered.

Aunt Quilla hurried through the doorway. "What's happened?"

"He's just hit me across the face," Adrian shouted.

"What have you done?" Quilla shouted, grabbing Hugh's arm.

Adrian said, "Daisy took the basement keys and read his journal, so he hit me."

"Look what you've done to your son!" Quilla said. "Look at that mark you left!" She pulled him around to face Adrian, who was still slumped against the wall.

Daisy felt herself begin to cry. She stood up and walked to the doorway, next to Uncle Hugh. Tears poured down her face, and she sobbed.

"Yeah, you have a lot to bloody cry about," Adrian said, looking at her with disgust.

"Don't let me die," she muttered to herself.

Quilla was still shouting at Hugh. Daisy grasped her Watcher's arm in both hands and leaned forward against him. "Don't let me die," she said. "I don't want to die."

Suddenly Quilla was quiet. Daisy closed her eyes and squeezed Hugh's arm as tightly as she could. "I don't want to die."

She was weeping, and Uncle Hugh turned around to face her.

"Don't let me die. I don't want to die."

He wrapped both arms around her. "It's all right," he said.

"But they're all dead. Slayers always die."

"It's all right." He held her and stroked her hair.

_Tell me I won't die, _she silently begged. But he couldn't say that. Because she was the Slayer, and they both knew she would die.

* * *

It was her seventeenth birthday. Uncle Hugh was at the barbie, and Daisy lay in the grass, across the yard, in a ray of sunlight. Aunt Quilla was inside baking a cake, and Adrian was watching the telly.

She lay on her back. The sun hurt her eyes, so she laid her arm across them. Her skin baked. Sweat ran down her neck. She felt the soft grass underneath her legs and arms. She wished it could always be daytime. She wished the sun would never go away.


	9. Two Years Later

**Christchurch, New Zealand, 1965**

* * *

Andros stumbled into the cave's dark entrance, struggling with the weight of the unconscious human body he carried over his shoulders. He heaved the woman onto the moist stone floor. "Ikaros!"

"Bring it closer." The whispered words came out of the darkness.

Mumbling to himself, Andros grabbed the woman's arms and dragged her further into the cave. She began to revive, and quiet moans came from her open mouth.

The burning smell that was distinct to Ikaros spread throughout the cave as he moved. He walked cautiously forward, then fell to the ground and grabbed the body, sinking his teeth into her throat.

When the feeding was over and the woman dead, Ikaros stood and faced Andros, wiping blood from his mouth. The other vampire watched in wonder as he flexed what remained of his wings. Charred feathers fell to the cave floor.

"I carried her twelve miles," Andros said. "If the Slayer had seen me, I would be dust."

"If the Slayer had seen you, you could have dropped her and ran."

"Then what would you have eaten?"

Ikaros didn't respond.

"I think it is time you left the cave."

"I have my work to do."

Andros sat down on the cave floor. "It is all about your diabolical plan, is it not?"

"I must do it. It is my life's work."

"You mean your _un_life's work."

Ikaros sat down next to him. "I was foiled by one Slayer. So I ran. I ran to an island. I thought it would be away from civilization, but I would still find enough to eat. The the Slayer was killed, and a new Slayer was Called. And she was Called here."

"And you have not left this cave in five years."

"I must not be foiled again."

Andros looked at the corpse near his feet. "So what are we going to do after the world is detroyed?"

"There will be nothing more to do. After destroying the world, I will have accomplished all."

"You will spend eternity basking in glory."

Ikaros either didn't understand his sarcasm or didn't care. He sat in the cave, looking out to the dark sky, and a beatific expression came onto his face as he imagined himself The Demon Who Destroyed the World.

"Yes," Andros said, "that sounds like fun."


	10. An Evil Plan

Daisy opened her eyes. She lay on the living room sofa, where she had slept away the morning. Afternoon sunlight shone in the windows. She stretched her arms above her head.

Uncle Hugh stepped into the room. "Awake? Let me check your ankle."

She had stumbled over a grave the night before, and by the time she had walked home her ankle was twice its normal size and difficult to walk on. She stuck her leg out of the blanket, and Uncle Hugh unwrapped the bandage. Her ankle looked normal again. He turned it around in his hands, feeling all the bones.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

"No."

"If only everyone had the healing powers of a Slayer."

Daisy threw off her blanket and went to the kitchen. Aunt Quilla was sitting at the table, mending clothes, and Adrian was talking about something. Daisy opened the refirgerator and hunted for breakfast.

"It's this long elastic cord," Adrian was saying, "and you attach it to your leg, and then you jump off the cliff and it snaps back."

"That doesn't sound too safe," said Aunt Quilla, breaking a piece of thread with her hands.

"Well, Henry and his dad do it all the time. They've never been killed."

He looked at Daisy. "A group of us are going bungee jumping the morning before graduation," he said. "You wouldn't want to..."

Thinking better of it, he trailed off. "No, I guess you wouldn't want to do it."

"No, I guess not," she said.

She went down to the basement to train with her Watcher. She felt that her body to him was like the car, or the washing machine: He kept it in running order, and when it broke he fixed it. When they were finished, she went upstairs to eat, then went out to slay.

* * *

Adrian's graduation was mid-afternoon, and Daisy would have been allowed to attend. Aunt Quilla had said she could go, and Uncle Hugh had said it was all right with him. They didn't seem to understand that she most certainly did not want to go. She didn't want to _watch_ kids her age celebrating, then go home with her Watcher and his wife. She didn't want to _feel_ that those kids were out partying, while she was at the cemeteries. So she spent the afternoon at home, by herself, reading about other Slayers. The books about their lives were like a balm for her loneliness.

Uncle Hugh and Aunt Quilla returned, but Adrian was, of course, out with his friends. When the sun began to go down, Daisy went out to the graveyards, her clothing packed with stakes.

She knocked one vampire to the ground and fell on top of it, her stake in her hand, while two more jumped on her from behind. She dusted the one on the ground and was knocked forward, her face hitting the soil. A vampire kneeled onto her back, her face was in the ground, and she couldn't breathe. Then he shifted his weight and she threw him off, turning over to stake him in the chest. The one that was left stood over her and growled, then she jumped up and punched him in the face before turning him to dust.

She walked through the cemetery, breathing hard. The full moon shone down on her as she crossed a treeless field of graves. When she made it to the low rock wall that surrounded the cemetery, she sat down to wait.

"I thought I would never find you."

She jumped up and held her stake ready. A man stepped out from the trees. His clothes were modern and he appeared to be clean.

"Yes," he said, "I am a vampire." His accent was foreign, European. "But I am not going to bite you."

Daisy didn't lower her stake. "What do you want?"

"I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"It is a friend of mine. He is cooking up an evil plan, and I am going to help you stop him."

"Why?"

"Loquacity is not one of your superhuman qualities, is it?" he said, chuckling. "Listen to me. Ikaros is my sire. That means I am drawn to him for all eternity. And not only am I getting sick of catering to all of his evil whims, I do not want the world to end and to find myself in some godforsaken dimension where there are no humans and I cannot find anything to eat. So I will show you where he is, and you will kill him."

"Well, where is he?"

"Up in the mountains. In a cave."

Daisy's mind went through all of the Slayers she had read about. There was story after story of girls being lured away, thinking they were going where the Slayer was needed, only to leave vulnerable the place where they ought to be.

"How did you know I'm the Slayer?"

He chuckled. "There are not many young ladies who spend all night in cemeteries, driving stakes through the hearts of the undead."

"But how did you know how to find me?"

"Word gets around."

"I'll have to ask my uncle about it. My Watcher, I mean."

"Well, go ask him. And meet me here tomorrow night."

She turned her back on the vampire and walked home.


	11. Coming to an End

"I thought Icarus was a myth."

"Well, apparently not. He existed."

Daisy and Uncle Hugh sat in the basement, surrounded by open books and manuscripts. They heard Quilla's and Adrian's footsteps above as they got ready for the day.

"He lived in Athens in the 13th Century B.C. 'Ikaros, also known as Icarus, along with his father, Deadalus, was imprisoned in a labyrinth by King Minos, as punishment for Deadalus's assistance in Theseus's defeat of the Minotaur,'" read Uncle Hugh. "Deadalus built two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax, and he and his son were able to escape the labyrinth. Though he warned Ikaros not to fly too close to the sun, Ikaros was overcome by ecstasy and flew higher and higher, until the wax melted and his wings were destroyed. He fell to the sea, and was believed dead by his father. However, he washed onto the shore, nearly drowned, and was found, killed, and turned by a group of vampires. No other records exist of him until the late 17th Century A.D., when he and a companion, Andros, whom he is believed to have sired, were defeated in a plot to destroy the world by Athene the Vampire Slayer. It is believed that Ikaros and Andros fled Greece, though their whereabouts today are unknown."

"They're known now," said Daisy. "Do you think the one I talked to is Andros, then?"

"He could very well be. He didn't identify himself, did he?"

She shook her head. "But it says that Andros and Ikaros tried to destroy the world together. And the vampire at the cemetery said he wanted Ikaros stopped."

"It could be a trick. Or it could not be. Or Mr. Uppington, whose account of events we are reading, could have got some of his facts wrong."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I'm going with you to the cemetery tonight, and we're going to get more information."

Daisy thought for a moment, looking at the wall. "But how was he going to destroy the world? What was he going to do?"

"It was by magic, a spell that Ikaros worked on for centuries. They were going to destroy the sun."

* * *

The sun was down. Daisy had been awake more than 24 hours. She and Uncle Hugh walked through Linwood Cemetery, stakes ready in their hands.

"He was over in that corner last night," she said.

Shadows moved in darkness and the vampire stepped out from behind a tree.

"I am glad you came," he said.

Uncle Hugh stepped forward, his stake raised. "Are you Andros?"

"I am."

"What do you want from us?"

"I want you to kill Ikaros, and I want you to let me live."

"Tell us where he is."

"I will have to show you. It is hard to reach."

"What's he planning to do?"

"Destroy the sun, like before."

"Take us to him."

Andros chuckled. "Not just yet."

Uncle Hugh took a step and slammed into the vampire's chest, pinning him against the tree. His stake was in his hand, an inch from Andros's heart. "We're not negotiating," he said. "You do as we say."

"If you want to save the world, you do as _I _say," Andros spat back.

Uncle Hugh released him, taking a step back and lowering his stake.

"That is more like it," said Andros. "Now listen. Ikaros spends all day and all night working on this spell. He will only sleep for a few hours at a time, and I never know when that is going to be. It is a long trek up the mountain. If you want to be sure to kill him, you come when I say the time is right."

"I'll just go tomorrow," said Daisy to Hugh. "I'll catch him unawares, during the day. It's just one vamp. It won't be hard."

"Not tomorrow, dearie," said the vampire. "Unless you want to find your way through miles of pitch-dark caves. Ikaros will only come to the mouth every once in a while, to feed. He usually forgets he is hungry until I remind him."

"When do you want us to go?" asked Uncle Hugh.

"Day after tomorrow," said Andros. "As soon as the sun goes down. Meet me here again. And be prepared for a long hike."

"Very well," said Uncle Hugh.

Andros turned and left.

Daisy and her Watcher walked back to the car, then drove home.

* * *

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," said Daisy, sitting down on the sofa. She unconsciously picked up a cushion and squeezed it in her arms.

"Nothing like what?" asked Adrian. He stood in the living room doorway. Uncle Hugh was in the kitchen, phoning the Council, and Aunt Quilla was taking a shower.

"Nothing like the world maybe coming to an end. I've read about it, but it's never actually happened to me. All I've ever done is gone out and killed vampires."

She and Adrian waited, barely listening to Hugh's conversation. The water in the bathroom turned off. The clock on the mantelpiece struck the hour.

They heard Uncle Hugh hang up the phone, then he walked past Adrian, into the room.

"The Council agrees to the plan," he said. "We meet Andros the night after tomorrow, he takes us to Ikaros's hiding spot, and you kill him. Then, if possible, you kill Andros, though that isn't essential."

"You don't think it's a trick?" asked Daisy. "Like, to leave Christchurch vulnerable or something?"

"The Council believes Andros's plea to be genuine."

Daisy leaned back into the sofa. "I don't know how to hike up a mountain."

"You are the Slayer," said Uncle Hugh. "Shouldn't be too hard for you. I'll go with you as far as I can."

Aunt Quilla walked into the room, wearing a robe, wrapping her hair in a towel.

"The world might be coming to an end," Daisy informed her.

"Don't say that," said Uncle Hugh. "We'll be all right."

"What's going on?" Quilla asked.

"Nothing we can't handle," said Hugh.

"Can I help with anything?" asked Adrian.

"Other Slayers have been through far worse."

"Can I help with anything?" Adrian repeated.

"No," said his father. "There's nothing you can do."

Adrian stood in the doorway. "Never mind, Dad," he muttered, and went upstairs.


	12. The End

Since she had earned her school certificate the year before, Daisy often went out by herself, for a little while, during the afternoon. Today she found herself in Cathedral Square, sitting on a bench, eating an ice cream cone and watching some street performers who looked like the Beatles and sounded like Bob Dylan.

Her nineteenth birthday was coming soon, and she thought about what she'd like to do. On her last birthday, she had been sick and very weak. She supposed she must have had some virus. She had told Hugh and Quilla that she needed to go to the doctor, but for some reason they hadn't taken her. Then, on top of that, she had gone out to slay and had somehow become trapped in a crypt with a vampire. She had barely been able to figure out a way to kill it and escape alive.

Munching the last bite of the cone, she became aware of a commotion behind her. She turned her head and saw a figure moving towards her. It looked human, but was covered in thick black cloth from its head to its feet. Huge, dark sunglasses were set onto the face. People moved away and gasped as the figure kept moving towards Daisy, taking with it a long shadow on the concrete.

"You must come now."

It was the vampire, Andros's, voice.

"I'm meeting you tomorrow," Daisy said, stumbling over her words.

"I thought we had time. But we do not."

"You mean Ikaros is finished with the spell?"

"Nearly."

"I'll have to go tell my Watcher."

"No. There is no time. You must come now."

"But it'll only take..." She stood and slung her purse over her shoulder.

He grasped her arm in his gloved fingers.

"Okay," she muttered, and walked quickly next to him, across the concrete path, as everyone in the Square watched them go.

Andros ran faster than any human could; any human except the Slayer. Daisy jogged down the sidewalks beside him, not bothering to be slow and conceal her identity. Perhaps every person in every car she passed would have an interesting story to tell around the dinner table tonight, about an inhumanly fast girl and her inhumanly fast, black-clad companion.

They ran through the suburbs, across an open field of parkland, and through some trees, west, towards the mountains. Daisy's purse flew into the air and banged against her back, mirroring the rhythm of her steps.

They were in wilderness, a forest, when Andros stopped. He leaned against a tree and breathed hard.

"He must fly towards the sun. He must get as close as possible for the spell to work. You must stop him before he takes off."

"So what do we do now?"

"Now we must climb."

"Well, let's go."

Still breathing loudly, Andros began to climb. Daisy was behind him.

The wind was ferocious and whipped Daisy's hair into her eyes as she climbed higher and higher. Where there wasn't a foothold there was a tree or a jutting rock to hoist herself further up the mountainside. She was aware of Andros above her, and looked up every minute, to be sure she was climbing in the right direction.

She had seen the mountain from the ground. Its peak was snowy and ringed with clouds. She didn't know where Ikaros's cave was, didn't know how far she'd have to climb. Then she looked down.

No, she thought, it wasn't possible. They couldn't have climbed that distance. Suddenly, her legs felt weak and her arms almost let go. This was more frightening than any cemetery or any monster. People weren't meant to leave the ground. It wasn't right; it threw the world out of balance and it killed you.

She continued to climb.

Andros shouted, but the wind carried away his words. Daisy pulled herself up and her head slammed into a rock.

"I said to stop!" he shouted.

He stood on a ledge, a smooth surface cut into the face of the mountain. Daisy crawled onto it, and felt thick liquid drip down her forehead, into her eyes. Dropping to her knees, she touched her hand to her head, where it had hit the rock. She saw that her fingers were covered with blood.

Andros was silent, and she sensed something different from him, a predator quality that he hadn't shown before. She unzipped her purse and took out a stake. Standing up, she held it close to his chest. "Take me to Ikaros."

She knew he couldn't have heard her above the wind, but he saw the stake. "As you say," he shouted, his black covering flying up and slapping his face.

He moved down the ledge, and Daisy followed, leaving her purse behind, the stake stuck into the waist of her jeans. She held onto anything she could to steady herself as the ledge became more narrow. The freezing wind blew up her shirt and whipped her hair around her face and neck. The gash in her head was throbbing, and the blood stung her eyes.

Andros stopped moving, and she collided into him. He turned his head to shout directly into her ear.

"You must climb around me. You will come to the mouth soon."

He pressed himself flat against the mountainside. Daisy let go with one hand and grasped his shoulder. Everything about him repulsed her, and her own hands disgusted her as she held on to him. Her legs went around his body as she climbed to his other side. Finally, she was away from him, by herself on the ledge.

She took step after step, moving her hands along with her feet. Her face scraped along the rough rock, and she closed her eyes against it and the wind.

The mountainside jutted out, blinding her view. Daisy looked down, then grasped the mountain tighter. She inched along, around the curve.

She came to the mouth of the cave. It was smaller than she'd thought it would be; she would have to bend over and crawl inside. The ledge widened again, and Daisy was able to loosen her grip and stand comfortably.

Just then, a movement. A large black thing. The hole in the side of the mountain was no longer a hole. It was a vampire. And then the vampire was through the hole, in the air. It had wings, and was covered with something that smelled like a newly paved street. Tar would block out the light, and wouldn't come off.

The vampire had jumped.

Daisy hadn't staked him in time.

Now, she had to choose.

If she let him go, he would destroy the world.

If she jumped onto his back, she could drive a stake into his heart.

But then he would turn to dust. She would fall. And the fall would kill her.

No matter what happened, she would die.

Daisy bent her knees.

She jumped.

* * *

She held onto the vampire's back as he flew through the air. The tar stuck all over her and his wings hurt her body as they pumped up and down. He was screaming, yelling at her to get off, as he climbed higher and higher, towards the sun.

Daisy had left her body. She breathed the air of Heaven. She had always thought other people experienced life like she never would. But no one had ever lived to this extreme. No one else even knew what life was.

Pulling the stake from her jeans, she closed her eyes and felt the sunlight wash over her.

She drove the stake into the vampire's heart.

* * *

Hugh St. James opened his front door. "Did you hear that?" he asked his wife.

"Hear what?"

"A noise. A crash."

He pushed open the storm door and walked across the front porch. Through the open gates, he saw people in the street, hurrying in one direction.

He crossed the front garden, and as he got to the road, began jogging. The street wound to the left, and as he rounded the bend, he saw that a crowd had gathered. He pulled people out of his way as he walked forward. They were looking down, at something in the middle of the street.

She was face-down. Her clothes were off-center, her shirt awry and exposing most of her back. Her dark hair spread in a circle around her head. Blood ran onto the pavement from underneath her body.

He kneeled down. Grasping her shoulder, he pulled her body onto its back. Her arms and legs, all broken, fell the wrong way. He looked at the bloody mess that had been her face, then looked away forever. Putting one arm under her knees and the other under her back, he lifted her body, and carried her home.

His wife waited on the front porch. "Oh, Hugh," she said, putting her hand to her mouth. When he climbed the porch steps with Daisy in his arms, Quilla held open the door, and he turned sideways to carry her into the house.

He lay her body on the sofa and heard his son jog down the stairs. Adrian walked into the living room doorway.

"Dad, she's not…." He walked around the back of the sofa, and saw.

"It's all right, son," Hugh said, taking Adrian in his arms as the boy began to cry. "It's all right. She died to save us all. That's what they do. It's what makes them Slayers."

Adrian looked back at the sofa. Daisy's body lay still, and the cross around her neck shone in the light from the windows.


End file.
